Orocopia Mountains

Coordinates: 33°34′0.086″N 115°46′32.974″W / 33.56669056°N 115.77582611°W / 33.56669056; -115.77582611

Orocopia Mountains
Mountain Range
Orocopia Mountains
Country	United States
State	California
District	Riverside County
Coordinates	33°34′0.086″N 115°46′32.974″W / 33.56669056°N 115.77582611°W / 33.56669056; -115.77582611
Highest point
- elevation	1,117 m (3,665 ft)
Timezone	Pacific (UTC-8)
- summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
Topo map	USGS Orocopia Canyon
location of Orocopia Mountains in California[1]

The Orocopia Mountains are located in Riverside County in southern California, USA, east of the Coachella Valley, west of the Chuckwalla Mountains, and south of Interstate 10 in the Colorado Desert. The range lies in an east-west direction, and is approximately 18 miles long. The Orocopia Mountains are north of and overlooking the Salton Sea and south of Joshua Tree National Park, with the Chocolate Mountains to the southeast and the scenic Mecca Hills just northwest.

Orocopia Mountains Wilderness Area

Location of the Orocopia Mountains

The area is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) designated and managed Orocopia Mountains Wilderness Area.^[2] The Orocopia Mountains are in the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert, adjacent to the Lower Colorado River Valley region. Just to the north is the Mecca Hills Wilderness Area.

Flora and fauna

The Wilderness Area includes some remnant natural spring fed oasis with the only California native palm, Washingtonia filifera or the California Fan Palm.

History

The Bradshaw Trail passed through the mountains, the first "euroamerican" route to the Colorado River from Riverside, California.

Geology and astronauts

The dramatic and variable terrain was shaped primarily by movements of the adjacent San Andreas Fault over millennia.

The Orocopia Mountains offer considerable geologic variety and was one of the areas used for geologic field training by Caltech Professor of Geology, Leon T. Silver, for astronauts in preparation for the NASA Apollo Moon landing missions.^[3]

• Apollo 13 Crew Training: September 1969: Lovell, Haise, & Swigert
• Apollo 14 Crew Training: February 1971: Shepard, Roosa, & Mitchell
• Apollo 15 Crew Training: June 1970: Scott, Irwin, & Worden
• Apollo 16 Crew Training: April 1972: Young, Mattingly, & Duke
• Apollo 17 Crew Training: December 1972: Cernan, Evans, & Schmitt

See also

• List of Sonoran Desert wildflowers

External links

• Official Orocopia Mountains Wilderness Area website
• Orocopia Mountains Wilderness photographs
• BLM Orocopia Mountains Wilderness Map
• CalTech: "Astronaut training in the Orocopias" article
• Mecca Hills Wilderness Area ( adjacent to north )

References

1. ^ "Orocopia Mountains". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:255682. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
2. ^ http://www.blm.gov/ca/pa/wilderness/wa/areas/orocopia_mountains.html. accessed 6/20/2010
3. ^ "Geologic Field Training of NASA Astronauts Between January 1963 and November 1972". http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1190/of2005-1190_table1.pdf. Retrieved 2007-03-20. 

• Allan, Stuart (2005). California Road and Recreation Atlas. Benchmark Maps. p. 112. ISBN 0-929591-80-1.